Disinformation; A Global Issue - Ryan Lorig

News of Russian interference in U.S. elections has seen rippling effects throughout the international community. Many nations now fear for their risk for interference from not only Russian bots, but from fake news and “disinformation” as a whole. Meserole and Polyakova explain that Germany recently passed the Network Enforcement Act, designed to limit hate speech and fake news in the online community. Meserole and Polyakova argue that policy like this could have a very minimal effect on the transmission of misinformation in the online community; and I would agree. Understanding how the Russians worked in the U.S. election has helped me spot a “fake account” from a genuine person who is interested in American politics. To a social media user who is easily excitable (more appropriately deemed a “keyboard warrior”), it would be extremely hard to detect whether another user is genuinely disagreeing with them or if it is someone trying to incite an aggravated response. Because hate speech and disinformation was so easily and cleverly concealed by “Russian bots,” an automated monitoring of these things would just simply not be effective. In addition, differentiating between a genuine user and a bot is just plain difficult. I, along with Meserole and Polyakova, do not see how Germany’s recent legislation will help to resolve the issue at hand. The way I see it, the international community has a real dilemma on their hands, especially when thinking about foreign interference in domestic affairs. Solutions to this problem will not come from state governments, they will come from the social media outlets themselves. This problem is not only limited to one country, but every country that allows citizens access to social media.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/05/25/disinformation-wars/